Work by artists from Northern Ireland is seen sporadically in Dublin in both group exhibitions and one man shows. Directions Out aims, for the first time, to present a focus on work produced there specifically in the period since 1969.

In the catalogue accompanying the exhibition, Brian McAvera argues that seventeen years of what is “quaintly” called “The Troubles” has ensured that the life experience of artists in the North, especially of those generations whose formative years coincide with the post-1969 period, is markedly different from their Southern confreres.

Much contemporary Northern art absorbs this experience, almost by osmosis. Artists create a layered but oblique response to political, social and religious concerns. They eschew the simplicities of media reportage, ignore the black and white of agit prop and seek to reflect - and reflect on - the Northern experience.